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Lobby versus Hagel (NYT goes after his ‘record on gays’)

A friend writes:

The Times today puts a short article about Hagel’s short history of anti-gay comments on p. 19, and highlights it up front. ‘Possible Defense Nominee Faulted for Record on Gays’ The hit is by Mark Landler, not famous for his independence, a reliable gauge of the paper’s unavowed position
on any given issue.

What do they have? Two votes and two comments over 16 years, both of them early on, both typical of the unexcited anti-gay sentiment of soldiers of Hagel’s
generation. Later, Hagel refused to side with his party on legislation banning gay marriage. He said it was a matter for the states.

Jennifer Rubin dances a jig.

Two precedents come to mind. First, the use of Chas Freeman’s dry realist comments on Tiananmen Square to undermine his nomination as head of the
National Intelligence Council in 2009, when the real issue was Israel. Second, the heightened neoliberal concern, circa 2002, regarding Muslim subordination of
women in order to justify the coming wars against Arab states.

Left-wing shibboleths of gender politics are brought in, where convenient, by the Israel lobby and its allies on the American right to discredit persons who
are skeptical of Israeli expansion and American militarism.

Update. Here is Andrew Sullivan on the attack, brilliant. He explains that the Israel lobby is all about tribalism. Notice the profanity at the end. He knows, I know, Chris Matthews knows too. We must all come in the end to the question of religious identity. Thanks to Peter Voskamp.

For many fanatically pro-Israel Jewish-Americans I know, it all comes down in the end to tribalism.

…I am not a tribal gay; I am a person before I am a gay person. I have attacked HRC in the past in a way that would simply be inconceivable for many Jewish Americans and AIPAC. I oppose hate crime laws; I challenged the priority for employment discrimination laws. I backed the Boy Scouts in their freedom. For the vast bulk of the American Jewish Establishment, this is simply incomprehensible. Why would I betray “your people” as one TNR colleague used to ironically call my fellow gays when talking to me. “My people?” It tells you so much about a mindset. The mindset affects all vulnerable minorities, of course, gays included. But the enforcement of it on Israel questions in Washington is striking. And it is profoundly illiberal. It reflexively and even at this point unconsciously puts tribal loyalty before any argument of any kind. It is why the Middle East is so fucked up. And why on the Israel question, Washington is so fucked up as well.

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I think the debate on Hagel should be widened to make room for Queers against Israeli Apartheid

http://vimeo.com/24222860

The Lobby’s use of GLBT issues to defend apartheid is beyond cynical.

How tolerant of sexual difference are the Orthodox in the US and Israel?
How easy is it to be frum and gay in Bnei Brak or NYC ?

http://anotherfrumgayjew.blogspot.ch/

Something else that came up in a different context today and reminded me of Zionism now

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1221/1224328081289.html

“But the intensification of their rhetoric in recent days may be telling. The use of excessively emotive language is often the hallmark of a group that knows it is losing the battle, resorting instead to increasingly hysterical claims. The position they cling to is archaic, abstruse and culpably inhumane. No amount of disingenuous emotional incontinence can disguise that.”

But there is more than one dancing to this tune.

Progressive Except Palestine does not only describe Zionists who suddenly become champions of women’s and gay rights to laud Israel, but those for whom these are key issues at home but ignored abroad where inconvenient to a critique of the West as the source of all evil.

Is there any other context than this where Hagel’s comments would be written off by Phil as “just” two, and basically some good old boy humor from a bygone era?

And, PS I do not think Hagel is necessarily a bad choice or anti-Jewish. Though I hate the term Jewish Lobby, and think he is rightly criticized for using it in the several instances.

Is Hagel on the level of Fred Phelps to you via gay rights?

–Not at all. I don’t think Hagel is particularly anti gay or anti Jewish.

–I think self styled liberals also display traits of being Progressive Except Palestine (and other struggles they frame as West vs Natives).

Is gay rights more important to you than foreign policy? Do you think people value one or the other more?

I think they do. I think we all do. Some people care more about the economy.

— I agree. Its part of my point here about minimizing Hagel’s mildly homophobic remarks. Phil would not do it in other cases.

‘Domestic issues.’

Do you think pointing out that the New York Times – with a track record of subtle pro-Israel propaganda and framing (with close attention paid to language; example: Isabel Kershner and the legality of the settlements) – is focusing on the supposed anti-gay views to bolster the overall Zionist attack on Hagel does not merit reporting on an anti-Zionist website?

— I think it merits pointing out here (is MW officially anti Zionist btw?) as does my comment.

I don’t think there is any equivalency. There is a rhetorical equivalency that leads nowhere.

—Some Progressives give Hamas a pass or roll their eyes when someone mentions their charter.

Pro-Israel types love to issue equivalencies – whether it’s praising the ‘resilient’ Israeli Jewish democracy juxtaposed against the Arab dictatorships (blanket generalization; as if you know anything about the ME outside of Israel) and so on and so forth.

–Can only answer for myself. I realize that anything outside of the echo chamber or in disagreement here is taken as pro-Israel and Zionist. I am happy to discuss anything with you but would prefer you not lump me into any category meant to shut down conversation.

Do you think there are perfect candidates? Who are good on every issue?

–I don’t think Hagel is a bad candidate. I would like to see this government forced to the table and not given unconditional passes when the US is supporting their existence. I think Netanyahu tried to mess with Obama and its expected that there will be a slap back.

The point behind PEP is that a progressive should be progressive on Palestine.

–Yes, I agree but progressives align themselves and excuse all kinds of non-progressive things in Palestine and in other movements to which they are sympathetic.

Hagel is not a liberal. People in the Palestinian solidarity camp seem to like him for his common sense attitude toward Israel. I think it’s also important to examine political stands relative to the political culture.

Do you think it’s revolutionary to advocate gay rights in America? (rhetorical question, of course it is NOT – gay rights is mainstream in terms of activism in our political culture – gay rights advocacy is VISIBLE).

The same is not true for Palestinian rights and recognizing that the Jewish State is a Jewish colony.

Stop equivocating like a child.

Well posters on some of the “Democratic” forums are buying the gay angle hook, line, and sinker. Of course the real issues don’t matter to them, only whether someone has a “D” or an “R” after their name…they only care that their sports team wins.

The whole gay rights/democracy/women’s rights argument smacks of neocolonialism to me. It reminds me of when various groups tried to hitch women/hijab-wearing issues onto terrorism fears after 9/11. I’m in favor of these things but the fact is a western country was plopped into the Middle East and now we expect it to influence these other countries so that can become more like us. And, besides, it’s not even working. Where is the evidence that Israel’s vaunted “democracy” is influencing the governance style of the surrounding countries? If anything, Israel has been moving in an anti-democratic direction for years now.

We’ve seen all this before. The Shah’s regime was somewhat “western” and permissive socially. It didn’t last because it was just another a case of putting lipstick on a pig. If change comes to these societies, it has to come organically from internal movements within them, not from the putative influence of US client states in the region.

“gay rights is mainstream in terms of activism in our political culture”

Yup, that’s very true! After all, people can switch more than their religions, you know, and some day my prince will come, and when that happens, I don’t want any impediments to the course, of course.